CNN has its latest poll out in North Carolina and they are not happy at all about the quality of their results. From UtD Blog:
North Carolina is closely divided on the presidential race.
According to a new poll by Opinion Research Corp. of battleground states for CNN and Time magazine, Republican John McCain had 48 percent and Democrat Barack Obama had 47 percent.
...
"But other polls in the state suggest McCain has a larger lead, and when averaged in a new CNN poll of polls out Wednesday, McCain has a 10-point lead," CNN writes.
Yes, they are saying their own poll stinks if you compare it to several other polls. Granted, PPP has more or less the same results, but not SUSA and not R2K.
Here is where the poll veers off into nonsensical land where those with tinfoil hats could start questioning their biases.
When third-party candidates were included in the question, McCain had 46, Obama 45, two percent selected Libertarian Bob Barr, two percent Ralph Nader and one percent Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.
Only Barr would be on the North Carolina ballot in November.
So, in reality, you would add one point onto Obama (Green Party supporters COULD not support McCain). Then, what about Ralph Nader. Well, in 2000 he cost us Florida, but I think supporters of his might also go for Barr. So, worst case scenario we give both percentage points to Barr and are tied with McCain, best case scenario we get one percentage point and are leading McCain.
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Christianity seem to forget the lessons of Jesus....
You must go away, because I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was alone and away from home, and you did not invite me into your home. I was without clothes, and you gave me nothing to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you did not care for me.' "Then those people will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? When did we see you alone and away from home? Or when did we see you without clothes or sick or in prison? When did we see these things and not help you?' "Then the king will answer, 'I tell you the truth. Anything you refused to do for any of my people here, you refused to do for me.'
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Look at the headlines, they'll tell you. The stock market has rebounded. It is resilient. STOCKS. HAVE. REBOUNDED. Dammit, don't look behind that curtain.
Okay, so they've gone up by 36 points through 2/3rd of a day after falling almost 1,000 points in 3 days.
AND, the stock market is down 3,500 points in the last year.
AND, the "Dow" removed AIG from its list of stocks and replaced it with Kraft, a food company, so any more downward movement from AIG will not effect "The Dow".
But, IT'S A REBOUND!!!!
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I've lost at least $25K in investment value in the last couple of weeks and considerably more since the first of this year, and I'm lucky it isn't worse than that. Good thing I'm not retiring for at least another couple decades...
I haven't lost nearly that much, since I don't have that much invested and have about another 40 years before retirement, but I took a hit on anything that wasn't "guaranteed" or real estate. I'm assuming we will be at 9,xxx by the time the election comes. Just saw a headline that Detroit is asking for $25 BILLION in bailout funds as well. I mentioned somewhere yesterday that Ford would be the next to declare bankruptcy and catapult us below 10,000.
We'll see. I'm thinking that good investments right now might be local farms. :)
See if they will sell you a share for $25,000.
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Good thing I'm not retiring for at least another couple decades...SPLib
Your paper investments are retired and so are you whether you know it or not. The worst is yet to come. Buy Gold or move to Dubai with Dick Cheney after Jan.
The President on Money and Banking
"I sincerely believe ... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816.
"Paper is poverty,... it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself." -- Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788.
"Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"I now deny [the Federal Government's] power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798.
"The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it would make of our country one of the happiest on earth." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, 1787.
"Every discouragement should be thrown in the way of men who undertake to trade without capital." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Tracy, 1785.
"I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"It is said that our paper is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it; but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813.
"Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper. It is cruel that such revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious adventurers, who, instead of employing their capital, if any they have, in manufactures, commerce, and other useful pursuits, make it an instrument to burden all the interchanges of property with their swindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of theirs." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"We are now taught to believe that legerdemain tricks upon paper can produce as solid wealth as hard labor in the earth. It is vain for common sense to urge that nothing can produce but nothing; that it is an idle dream to believe in a philosopher's stone which is to turn everything into gold, and to redeem man from the original sentence of his Maker, 'in the sweat of his brow shall he eat his bread.'" --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816.
"The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Bank, 1791.
At least you've got a while before your little one has to go to college. Honest to Great Goddess on high. I don't know how we're going to get through the next 4 years. Working for a non-profit that helps people who have no money find child care that they can't afford. . . how long is THAT going to last?
You're not just talking about a little bit of money, you're talking about a lot. If you can roll it over into something safer with the tax shield in place, that's one thing. But to take your tax hit now, it would take (probably) ten years of interest-earning to get back to where you are now.
Plus, if you stop contributing now, you'll miss out on the employer match, which is (depending on your plan) an instant boost to your money and helps to counter the lost value of your investments. Keep in mind, you're not losing units, the units you have are dropping in value. Theoretically speaking, that value should come back up. Eventually.
Your plan should have a low- or no-risk investment option (like Robert mentioned) where you can winter the storm. It doesn't yield much, but don't forget the % you earn from employer contributions.
that helps a lot. Do you think an IRA is a safer tax shielded investment? There are no more employer matches since the job vanished last year. I am worried about the company vanishing as well. If the company doesn't outlast the economic downturn, then "POOF" are all the "units gone too?
investment counselor; my limited experience comes from advising my employees over the years, which I always tried to tread lightly with, because basically I'm an idiot. :) I will say this:
I am worried about the company vanishing as well. If the company doesn't outlast the economic downturn, then "POOF" are all the "units gone too?
if the company uses (or used) an independent investment house (mine is Principal), both your and your company's prior contributions should no longer be "connected" to the company, which should protect your money from anything bad that happens to the company.
If, however, your 401k is actually managed by the company and not some outside entity, then you need to seriously consider rolling it over and out of there.
As far as the IRA vs mutual fund-type accounts, I simply don't know. I'm actually in the middle of trying to figure that out for myself right now. There are also life insurance-based products like variable annuities that guarantee to not only protect your (initial) capital amount, but also pay a minimum of %5 dividend.
Like I said, I know just enough to get me in trouble, so you really should talk to somebody who knows.
After Hagan's afternoon town-hall meeting on the military at the state Veterans of Foreign Wars headquarters, Melvin Whitley was persuaded. A 26-year-old sergeant and Iraq veteran in the N.C. National Guard's 1132nd Military Policy Company based in Rocky Mount, Whitley said his unit has sustained more casualties in Iraq than any Guard unit since World War II. "We saw car bombers, suicide bombers, on a day-to-day basis," Whitley said. "[Hagan] really supports the troops. I can see it in her eyes. I'm gonna go with the same feeling in my gut about this vote that I used over there to decide which way to turn and which street to go up in order to keep my men safe."
I am struck by the language of the reporting about the AIG bailouts et al. "we had to help them out, they would be going under otherwise"
we could not possibly let them suffer, They made mistakes but we can not just let them fail.
Does that sound like liberalism advocacy of social welfare programs!?
"In extending a last-minute $85 billion lifeline to American International Group, the troubled insurer, Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, but it has also probably undercut future American efforts to promote such policies abroad.
“I fear the government has passed the point of no return,” said Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian. “We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams.”
These are the times that try men/womens souls. It is sure fun to wake up every morning.
Comments
This will bring out the nutcases
I guess the xenos will argue just let 'em die.
______________________________
The end of an error
When pollsters get it wrong and don't like it.
CNN has its latest poll out in North Carolina and they are not happy at all about the quality of their results. From UtD Blog:
Yes, they are saying their own poll stinks if you compare it to several other polls. Granted, PPP has more or less the same results, but not SUSA and not R2K.
Here is where the poll veers off into nonsensical land where those with tinfoil hats could start questioning their biases.
So, in reality, you would add one point onto Obama (Green Party supporters COULD not support McCain). Then, what about Ralph Nader. Well, in 2000 he cost us Florida, but I think supporters of his might also go for Barr. So, worst case scenario we give both percentage points to Barr and are tied with McCain, best case scenario we get one percentage point and are leading McCain.
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
R2K and SUSA
Never mind the fact that those two poll were done before monday meltdown and during the peak of any post convention bump McCain would have received.
Those Evangelicals and all the Republicans that say they own
Christianity seem to forget the lessons of Jesus....
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions
Stocks Rebound?
Look at the headlines, they'll tell you. The stock market has rebounded. It is resilient. STOCKS. HAVE. REBOUNDED. Dammit, don't look behind that curtain.
Okay, so they've gone up by 36 points through 2/3rd of a day after falling almost 1,000 points in 3 days.
AND, the stock market is down 3,500 points in the last year.
AND, the "Dow" removed AIG from its list of stocks and replaced it with Kraft, a food company, so any more downward movement from AIG will not effect "The Dow".
But, IT'S A REBOUND!!!!
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Rebound or Not
I've lost at least $25K in investment value in the last couple of weeks and considerably more since the first of this year, and I'm lucky it isn't worse than that. Good thing I'm not retiring for at least another couple decades...
I moved my funds around recently.
I haven't lost nearly that much, since I don't have that much invested and have about another 40 years before retirement, but I took a hit on anything that wasn't "guaranteed" or real estate. I'm assuming we will be at 9,xxx by the time the election comes. Just saw a headline that Detroit is asking for $25 BILLION in bailout funds as well. I mentioned somewhere yesterday that Ford would be the next to declare bankruptcy and catapult us below 10,000.
We'll see. I'm thinking that good investments right now might be local farms. :)
See if they will sell you a share for $25,000.
When Palin ran for mayor, she [said it was] "not rocket science." But after a tumultuous start, marked by controversial firings and lawsuits against the city, Palin felt compelled to hire a city manager
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I am getting TF out of here with my paper assets?
Good thing I'm not retiring for at least another couple decades...SPLib
Your paper investments are retired and so are you whether you know it or not. The worst is yet to come. Buy Gold or move to Dubai with Dick Cheney after Jan.
The President on Money and Banking
"I sincerely believe ... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816.
"Paper is poverty,... it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself." -- Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788.
"Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"I now deny [the Federal Government's] power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798.
"The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it would make of our country one of the happiest on earth." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, 1787.
"Every discouragement should be thrown in the way of men who undertake to trade without capital." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Tracy, 1785.
"I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"It is said that our paper is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it; but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813.
"Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper. It is cruel that such revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious adventurers, who, instead of employing their capital, if any they have, in manufactures, commerce, and other useful pursuits, make it an instrument to burden all the interchanges of property with their swindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of theirs." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
"We are now taught to believe that legerdemain tricks upon paper can produce as solid wealth as hard labor in the earth. It is vain for common sense to urge that nothing can produce but nothing; that it is an idle dream to believe in a philosopher's stone which is to turn everything into gold, and to redeem man from the original sentence of his Maker, 'in the sweat of his brow shall he eat his bread.'" --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816.
"The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Bank, 1791.
Sorry you've lost 25K
At least you've got a while before your little one has to go to college. Honest to Great Goddess on high. I don't know how we're going to get through the next 4 years. Working for a non-profit that helps people who have no money find child care that they can't afford. . . how long is THAT going to last?
Does anyone know how vulnerable are 401Ks?
Can you lose what you and your employer have put in? Would it make sense to pull out the money and take the penalty just to keep from losing it all?
Progressive Democrats of North Carolina
Generally speaking, no,
it would not make sense to take the penalty now.
You're not just talking about a little bit of money, you're talking about a lot. If you can roll it over into something safer with the tax shield in place, that's one thing. But to take your tax hit now, it would take (probably) ten years of interest-earning to get back to where you are now.
Plus, if you stop contributing now, you'll miss out on the employer match, which is (depending on your plan) an instant boost to your money and helps to counter the lost value of your investments. Keep in mind, you're not losing units, the units you have are dropping in value. Theoretically speaking, that value should come back up. Eventually.
Your plan should have a low- or no-risk investment option (like Robert mentioned) where you can winter the storm. It doesn't yield much, but don't forget the % you earn from employer contributions.
Thanks Steve
that helps a lot. Do you think an IRA is a safer tax shielded investment? There are no more employer matches since the job vanished last year. I am worried about the company vanishing as well. If the company doesn't outlast the economic downturn, then "POOF" are all the "units gone too?
Progressive Democrats of North Carolina
You should probably talk to a professional
investment counselor; my limited experience comes from advising my employees over the years, which I always tried to tread lightly with, because basically I'm an idiot. :) I will say this:
if the company uses (or used) an independent investment house (mine is Principal), both your and your company's prior contributions should no longer be "connected" to the company, which should protect your money from anything bad that happens to the company.
If, however, your 401k is actually managed by the company and not some outside entity, then you need to seriously consider rolling it over and out of there.
As far as the IRA vs mutual fund-type accounts, I simply don't know. I'm actually in the middle of trying to figure that out for myself right now. There are also life insurance-based products like variable annuities that guarantee to not only protect your (initial) capital amount, but also pay a minimum of %5 dividend.
Like I said, I know just enough to get me in trouble, so you really should talk to somebody who knows.
You're fabulous
and I owe you lunch sometime soon :-)
Progressive Democrats of North Carolina
Let's tell Congress to man up and find Rove in contempt
Here's the link, now's the time, just do it!!!!
wiredforchange
Progressive Democrats of North Carolina
Great Quote
Saw this on Kos, no link for where it came from
"Keep the Faith"
"Keep the Faith"
welfare queens v free market
I am struck by the language of the reporting about the AIG bailouts et al. "we had to help them out, they would be going under otherwise"
we could not possibly let them suffer, They made mistakes but we can not just let them fail.
Does that sound like liberalism advocacy of social welfare programs!?
"In extending a last-minute $85 billion lifeline to American International Group, the troubled insurer, Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, but it has also probably undercut future American efforts to promote such policies abroad.
“I fear the government has passed the point of no return,” said Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian. “We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams.”
These are the times that try men/womens souls. It is sure fun to wake up every morning.
TurnNCBlue
The republican record as concerns the DOW
When Bush took over, the DOW was at 10,587. On September 17, 2008--yesterday--it closed at 10,609.
That's a whopping 22 point gain over 7+ years, what ya gonna do with all that cash?
'nuff said?
This stock check is no good Sir!
When Bush took over, the DOW was at 10,587. On September 17, 2008--yesterday--it closed at 10,609.
That's a whopping 22 point gain over 7+ years, what ya gonna do with all that cash?
'nuff said?*pagandenman
Not nuff said if you try to cash in the DOW stock at a Washington Mutual Branch Bank today!